Good way to spend a Saturday

Ward Party, Park, Bike Riding, Kite Flying, Pizza Delivered, Dart Gun Fight. Yep, pretty good.

I blame....FB

Everyone's been on my case lately, "You never update your blog anymore!" Well...it's true. I'm turning into those once a month updaters that used to drive me crazy. You know what I blame, Facebook. Facebook is so quick and easy and you can type "5 year old peed on my kitchen floor today" and that's all you have to say to get your point across. No picture necessary or verbose narrative required. Now if I posted that for a blog posting people would think I was loosin' it a bit. It seems like most of the things happening in my life right now are just one liners anyway, nothing worthy of an extensive paragraph plus pics.

On that note, here are some pictures from Christmas, mostly for the fam, they've been bugging to see them and since it's, oh, mid March, I figure it's high time I got around to posting them.

PS Here are some statements I'd like to make. Anyone care to agree/disagree?

1. James on Survivor Heroes v. Villains is completely annoying and should have gotten the boot tonight. I don't remember him being such a jerk on his original season.

2. Salt and Vinegar pringels are quite easily the yummiest things ever and I just ate half a can and now my mouth is all raw and tender.

3. I busted out my flip flops this week but now the arch on my right foot is killing me. I think your feet have to get used to the flat bottom/no support of flip flops and I shouldn't have jumped right in so whole heatedly. I should have done a progressive flip flop wearing time table starting with 1 hour on the first day and increasing by 30 minutes each day.

4. If you are a sister, or have a sister and you truly love them, wouldn't you fly 1,200 miles each way to come to her house and cut and highlight her hair...if by chance you did posses those skills. If I had any skills worth flying 1,200 miles for I would certainly think about considering doing the same thing.

MU vs. OU Gymnastics

Jenna and I went on a date to the MU gymnastics meet last Friday night. We had a GREAT time, except that we had to park a mile away and walk in in the rain, that was crappy, but other than that...super fun.

The OU team was amazing and has many potential 2012 Olympic games gymnasts on their team. It was crowded at all, so Jenna and I sat alone on the FRONT row, literally feet away from the gymnasts. She could be heard throughout the meet telling the girls that their hair was beautiful and she liked their sparkles/pants/shirts/slippers/ribbons/pony tails...etc. I had to tell her to tone it down a bit because I was afraid she would start bothering them too much. She paid attention the entire time and didn't want to leave. The only thing she didn't like was that the announcer was noisy and yelled a lot. She kept asking me, "Why does that man have to talk so loud." She's like me in that she doesn't like crowded/noisy places, but we both did great. lol

BODYSTEP Baby Shower

Now those of you who know me, know that I hate baby showers. I'm sorry to be like that, but it's true. Sure, I go to people's baby showers, but it's usually torture. Tonight however, we had a baby shower that I can get on board with! There are two ladies that are religious BODYSTEPPERS that are literally days away from having their babies and they have been faithful and diligent steppers throughout their pregnancies. A few of the regulars in the class, along with some instructors thought it would be fun to have a BODYSTEP class/baby shower. We did all "baby" or "mommy" themed songs and had baby trivia/prizes between tracks and class members brought pictures of themselves during pregnancy. It was really a lot of fun and we all got a good work out in to boot! This is the third baby for one of the ladies (Nela) and her husband told us that she has NEVER had a baby shower before. Isn't that sad! So we were really grateful to be able to do this for them and we had a great time. (Sorry the pic is so bad!)

My Two Year Old Tweenager

Yesterday-
Me: Brooke, I need you to go get your shoes on so we can go.
Brooke: In a minute mom, I'm texing Grandma!

You can't see from the photo, but she's holding a CD player remote control. She uses it like an iphone/blackberry. She texts on it, sends emails, checks facebook...you name it! Something tells me we're in trouble...

Do's and Don't of Cake Making

Matt's sister Marcie got married last week and asked me if I would do her wedding cake. A risky move on her part, considering I've never done a wedding cake before! She had confidence I guess and I had reckless abandon and together, it worked out okay. However, in case you are thinking of making your sister-in-laws' wedding cake in the near future, here are some pearls of wisdom from me to you. Consider it my Christmas gift to you.

Do: Have an awesome aunt with a huge kitchen and double ovens to bake all 9 layers of cake in.
Don't: Fail to grease the pan thoroughly enough.Don't: Start to cry when things start getting a little...frustrating.
Do: Have an awesome sister who is willing to be your cake assistant and do whatever you tell her with amazing skill and speed (and who also happens to be fantastic at going through the McDonald's drive for you).
Don't: Threaten said assistant with wayward greenery when things start to get a little...frustrating.Do: Purchase a heating pad for the aching pain you will have in your back after piping hundreds of royal icing triple dot clusters.Do: Stand by your cake the entire night to beat little children who might approach to quickly or closely.Do: Leave before they actually cut the cake, because it feels a little like watching your child being eaten, which is never good.

The final product: This cake probably took a combined effort of about 30 hours of (wo)man labor between myself and my sister. The top and bottom layer was white cake with butter cream icing and a raspberry reduction sauce (made by Matt's culinarily gifted brother, Jon). The middle layer was chocolate cake with butter cream icing and Carmel and Heath bar filling.

New Moon Midnight Premier

Keri, me and Kristen: Sporting our One-of-a-kind, specialty shirts that we had made just for this. I'd like to give myself credit for having come up with the "conflicted" concept.

One sleeve says "Team Edward," for Edward Cullen from the books whom we are in love with. (This is Edwards actual writing from the books...Kristen downloaded it).

The other side said "Team Taylor," for Taylor Lautner who is the actor who plays Jacob Black in the movies, whom we love also. Most people can only be Team Edward or Team Jacob (boo!), but with Taylor playing Jacob, we're conflicted, get it? It's totally awesome. (Also Jacob's actual handwriting from the books).

Waiting (for 3 hours!) in line at the theater.

But, being 3 hours early does have its perks....FIRST IN LINE baby! (Matt was so embarrassed when I told him that fun fact). According to the theater worker guy (who became our good friend after 3 hours of chatting), they sold 875 tickets to the show that night. My guess is that about 300 of us were lucky enough to be inside and the rest of those poor suckers had to stand outside! Yuck.

Now on to the movie. I'll give a brief review, so as not to ruin anyone's fun or taint their opinion. It was much better than Twilight, no doubt about it. There were still a few painful parts when the writing seemed to struggle a little bit, but the acting was FAR improved from the first movie. Especially Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Bella (Kristen Stewart), they were both so bad in the first movie that I was pleasantly surprised the I didn't want to kill them in this one. Is it going to win any Oscars, of course not, but it was a lot of fun and the story seemed to be more action packed than the first movie (which is funny b/c the book seems to drag for me). And don't worry Edward fans, he's only gone for 36 minutes in the middle of the movie. ;) (unlike the book, where he seems to be gone FOREVER!)